1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of intellectual property audit systems, and more particularly, to the field of intellectual property systems which collects pertinent data regarding an intellectual property portfolio and analyzes the collected data against empirical data to provide a qualitative and/or quantitative analysis of the intellectual property portfolio.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, purchasers of assets which are intellectual property intensive typically purchase these assets based upon some estimated value which, of course, begins with an offer for sale. When a creditor is considering advancing funds based upon the value of fixed assets, such as equipment, an appraisal is performed and a liquidation value is determined. Then a liquidity adjustment is considered and a liquidation value is concluded. The same valuation approaches can be employed to determine the liquidation value of intellectual property. It is known to value intellectual property assets with respect to various accounting procedures which conform to Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures (GAAP). There are typically three such procedures: cost, market and income approaches.
The cost approach gives consideration to the cost to reproduce or replace the subject intellectual property. For example, for patent intellectual property, this approach would consider the cost associated with research, engineering, design and testing activities. In trademark cases the advertising expenses that would be needed to create a trademark of similar prominence would be considered.
From this amount an allowance is deducted to reflect all forms of depreciation or obsolescence present, whether it arises from physical, functional or economic causes. Physical deterioration (depreciation) is the loss in value resulting from wear and tear from operations and exposure to the elements. Functional obsolescence is the loss in value within the property as a result of such things as changes in design, materials, or processes, overcapacity, inadequacy, excess construction, lack of utility, and excess operating cost. Economic obsolescence is the loss in value that results from influences external to the property such as the general state of economy, the effect of governmental regulations, and the like. A summary of the cost approach is presented below.
Replacement cost                Less: Physical Depreciation        Less: Functional Obsolescence        Less: Economic Obsolescence        
Equals: Fair Market Value
Physical and functional obsolescence is not usually an important factor when valuing intellectual property but care is needed to consider the economic obsolescence that can be introduced by outside forces.
Unfortunately the cost to develop intellectual property rarely bears any relationship to the economic earning power of the property or the value of the property.
The market approach gives consideration to prices paid for similar property in arm's length transactions. Adjustments can be made, if necessary, to the indicated market prices to reflect the condition and utility of the property being appraised relative to the market comparative. This approach is applicable where there is an active market with a sufficient quantity of reliable and verifiable data. Usually, similar property that exchanged between independent parties for which price data is disclosed is impossible to find for intellectual properties. The activities of the Resolution Trust Corporation are however beginning to provide some of the previously missing data. At present, the market approach is difficult to implement for intellectual property.
The income approach, by default, is still the most preferred method. It considers the present value of the prospective economic benefits of owing the appraised property. This involves a capitalization of the forecasted income stream with consideration given to the duration of the income and the risks related to its achievement.
Care must be employed to assure that economic benefits derived from the intellectual property are isolated from the contribution to earnings derived from the complementary assets of the business. When properly done, the income approach can provide an accurate indication of the fair market value of intellectual property. Once the fair market value of the intellectual property portfolio has been determined, then as indicated above, the fair market value is adjusted according to conventional methods which consider effects such as amount of time required to dispose of the portfolio, market evidence of similar intellectual property portfolios sold in liquidation and cost to liquidate the property.
These accepted accounting methods rely or function on the availability of sufficient data relating to the intellectual property portfolio itself. Thus, in this situation, the seller of the intellectual property portfolio typically has used and marketed the intellectual property over a sufficiently long time period that suitable data has been collected to formulate a price based upon one of the above accounting valuation techniques. However, these accounting techniques typically do not provide reliable and/or dependable valuation results when the seller of the intellectual property portfolio has not collected data or has not used or marketed the portfolio long enough to obtain such data.
In addition, for typical purchases of intellectual property assets, there is typically unavailable an independent indicator of the worth of the intellectual property to be sold. The independent indicator which is lacking may be either a qualitative or quantitative indicator of the worth of the intellectual property portfolio.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an independent analysis of an intellectual property portfolio including an independent qualitative or quantitative worth indicator of the intellectual property portfolio to be acquired.
In addition, it is also desirable to provide an intellectual property audit system that does not depend on the owner of the portfolio having previously used and marketed the portfolio.
It is further desirable to provide an intellectual property audit system which can be used to determine the qualitative and/or quantitative value of the intellectual property portfolio in an efficient and relatively rapid manner.
It is also desirable to provide the qualitative and/or quantitative value by analyzing the intellectual property itself in a mechanized manner as well as considering external factors relating to, for example, characteristics of the purchasing and selling entities.
Finally, it is also desirable that the intellectual property audit system be provided with the ability to output requests for manual assistance to correct, for example, erroneously entered data or incomplete or insufficient data causing the intellectual property audit system to be unable to completely analyze the input data for determining of an intellectual property portfolio value. Accordingly, the audit system permits a user to manually correct or complete data to permit the audit system to determine a qualitative and/or quantitative intellectual property portfolio value.